The Search  -->  Planning Your Search

The Internet has made it easier, faster, and more efficient for prospective employers and candidates to find a match. On the other hand, all it takes is a quick web search to reveal your personal proclivities, which can knock you out of the running for your dream job. These days, an increasing number of employers are doing that search before making a hiring decision.  When you begin looking for a new position, and periodically thereafter, it is wise to do an Internet search on your name. You might be surprised by what you find, and you don’t want to be precluded from a job opportunity or ambushed in an interview because of any digital dirt.  It is up to you to make sure your online presence is squeaky clean.

Attorneys should strive to maintain a professional Internet presence at all times. This starts with something as basic as having a businesslike email address. Nothing dispels the image of a crackerjack lawyer faster than a resume which lists something like “earthtojoey@xyz.com” or “sexysuzie@xyz.com.” You can be as imaginative as you like with your personal email correspondence, but choose something benign for business, such as “jsmith@xyz.com” or “suzanne.brown@xyz.com.”

Similarly, use a different personal email and/or a pseudonym which does not identify you for all of your postings at sites, blogs, chat rooms, etc, which have nothing to do with your life as a lawyer. It is none of your prospective employer’s business whether you are looking for a mate who shares your love of Frisbee golf, belong to the Howdy Doody Fan Club, or collect vintage garden gnomes. If you feel compelled to share your opinions on controversial but non-law-practice-related subjects on the worldwide web, you especially want to keep your personal and professional identities completely separate.

Clean up your profiles on any social networking sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace, FaceBook, and their kin including sites such as YouTube. Remove any potentially embarrassing information, comments, photos, or videos. Disconnect links to other sites that might have content inconsistent with your professional image, and cut off links to any friends or acquaintances with questionable content on their pages. Limit access to your closest friends and family, and block comments if you fear someone else might post unflattering material on your profile. Be especially selective of the music and photos you chose to include. Even though these sites might cater to your personal, rather than your professional life, everything online is fair game if a prospective employer runs a web search.

Be warned, however, that these precautions may not be sufficient. Designating your profile, or parts thereof, as private does not block access to everyone. Governmental agencies still may be able to read it in its entirety by virtue of the Patriot Act. Remember, also, that there is no such thing as complete deletion of anything on the web; everything is archived somewhere, and savvy computer users may be able to gain access. Furthermore, you cannot control what others post about you on their sites, blogs, or profiles.

Beware, also, that actively participating on the more businesslike social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, could allow a prospective employer to blow the cover off of your confidential job search if any of your links, coworkers, or contacts are asked for a premature reference check. Furthermore, if your have posted your resume on job boards, and a prospective employer finds quite a few such postings in the course of a web search, you could appear desperate and indiscriminant in your job search.

On the other hand, the Internet can be your friend. These days, in order to have credibility as a business person, you must have a presence online. To create your online professional persona, make sure you are listed at all of the appropriate places, such as State Bar online records, your firm’s website, directories of any professional or educational organizations to which you belong, etc. Make sure that the information is complete, accurate, and updated everywhere you appear online.

If you are listed on a company or law firm website, make sure your profile includes your resume, all professional affiliations, publications, and presentations, with links to the full texts of any articles you have written, if possible. You want to position yourself as an expert in your area of practice.  If you are self-employed or looking for a new position, you might consider creating your own professional website containing the same sort of information.  List your individual business website on your resume.

Your web presence must also look professional. Carefully select colors and images, avoiding family or casual photos, animations, emoticons, cutesy graphics, and novelty fonts. Graphics such as the scales of justice and law books are overused and trite; choose something more visually engaging. Unless you are a true webmaster, hire one!

If you have a blog, make sure it is professional in content and tone. Check grammar and spelling; use complete sentences and proper punctuation; use neither all caps nor all lower case letters; do not rant, never post anything embarrassing; and NEVER badmouth your employer. Do not use profanity, cartoons or jokes that are discriminatory or otherwise in poor taste. Be especially careful to protect privileged and confidential information, even if you think it will be disseminated only to a select audience. You may also want to block comments in order to gain some control over what a web search about you might yield. At the very least, set up a mechanism where comments must be approved before they are posted live on the web.

Even with all of these precautions, you might find some unflattering information about yourself on the web. The key is to be proactive and take steps to clean up as much as possible before a prospective employer sees it. You can contact the webmaster of any site where this information is found to attempt to get it removed, updated, or corrected. At the very least, if you are checking up on your online presence regularly, you should be able to have ready answers for any “digital dirt” a prospective employer may have dug up, so you won’t get sullied or buried by it during a job search.

• View our most recent Hot Tip - Silent Eloquence, posted 7/13/10
• The California Bar Exam
• Listen to Your Recruiter

Check out our new book, "The Right Moves: Job Search and Career Development Strategies for Lawyers"